The demonstration, one of the biggest in recent years, was attended by bishops of five different inter-Christian faiths and 38 other Christian organisations.
Over 50,000 Christians from 45 different congregations on Sunday demonstrated against the ‘distorted’ Justice BK Somasekhar Commission report on church attacks.
The demonstration, one of the biggest in recent years, was attended by bishops of five different inter-Christian faiths and 38 other Christian organisations.
The memorandum sent to chief minister BS Yeddyurappa demanded the state government to hand over the investigations to CBI and reject the Justice Somashekar Commission report.
Over 40,000 people took out a silent march with gagged mouths wearing black dresses and carrying black flags for a distance of 2 km. They converged at the Nehru Maidan where various Christian leaders, including the bishop of Mangalore Catholic Diocese Rev Fr Aloysius Paul D’Souza, appealed to the state government and the governor to reject the report and institute a CBI inquiry into the church attacks.
“We are not gathered here to impose ourselves on the government or the society but to show our grief and resentment over the injustice meted out to Christians in the report by circumventing the true perpetrators of church attacks,” said Fr D’Souza.
His views were shared by the bishops of Catholic Syro-Malabar Diocese of Belthangady, Catholic Syro-Malankara Diocese of Puttur, the Churches of South India-Karnataka Southern Diocese, the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, the Malankara Syrian Jacobite Church, and the Marthoma Church.
“Today, we stand together to urge the government to reject the Somashekar Committee report and allow justice to prevail by bringing the culprits of church attack to book”
The memorandum posed several questions on church attacks. “The report gives only district-wise incidents of church attacks; it has failed to give a statewide picture. There were systematic attacks at the same time in an organised manner in Karnataka, which is not explained by the commission. The report was silent on this aspect and therefore we reject it.”
“The commission accepts the excess of force by police in places like Permannur and Kulashekar in Dakshina Kannada district. The commission admits the lapse of officials in number of places. Yet the commission gives a clean chit to the officials and police personnel, which was contradictory,” the memorandum said.
Speaking to the press on the sidelines of the demonstration, senior Congress leader Oscar Fernandes, asked, “Why was there a sea of difference between the interim report and the final report of Justice BK Somashekar Commission? In the interim report, Justice Somashekar had given a number of observations which were in the right directions, but we do not know what transpired between the interim report and the final report. This has to be investigated.”
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